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(Sunday, June 28, 1914, approximately 11:00 a.m. Central European Time) — Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated today in Sarajevo by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, an event that sparked World War I, one of the deadliest wars in history.

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The imperial couple were shot at close range while being driven through Sarajevo, the provincial capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, formally annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908.

Princip was part of a group of six Bosnian assassins; all but one were Bosnian Serbs and members of a student revolutionary group that later became known as Young Bosnia.

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The political objective of the assassination was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav (“Yugoslav”) state.

The assassination precipitated the July Crisis which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, and the start of World War I.